Which Ships DO NOT have Dreamworks

[dmwnc1959]

Yeah. But more costly right?

 

'Cost' is completely subjective to the experience the cruiser wants to come away with. Cunard is more costly, Carnival not so much. Silversea more costly, NCL not so much.

 

Last year I cruised 10-nights B2B on Celebrity Millennium single occupancy in an ocean view cabin for $1233. It was by far cheaper than anything RCI had in comparison going at the same time. Was the cruise 'lesser' because it was cheaper? No. Was the cruise exactly what I expected paying the rate I did? No, it was by far much, much better than I ever dreamed.

 

I don't want to see any animated giant cartoon characters in my cruise vacation. So no matter what the cost, I will cruise other lines to avoid them. Be it Celebrity, HAL, Princess, etc.

 

Celebrity is an excellent cruise line and even if it does cost more, I'll gladly pay what it takes to experience the type of cruise that I want. And that means a more upscale, chic, and adult environment without all of the amusement park styled bells and whistles.

 

And absolutely no giant cartoon characters.

[Friend100]

Yeah. But more costly right?

 

Not necessary. It really depends on timing and itinerary. I know i can get a 7 days in March on the Celebrity Eclipse for $499pp. Yes the is after final payment but still pretty good deal imo.

[Ocean Boy]

'Cost' is completely subjective to the experience the cruiser wants to come away with. Cunard is more costly, Carnival not so much. Silversea more costly, NCL not so much.

 

Last year I cruised 10-nights B2B on Celebrity Millennium single occupancy in an ocean view cabin for $1233. It was by far cheaper than anything RCI had in comparison going at the same time. Was the cruise 'lesser' because it was cheaper? No. Was the cruise exactly what I expected paying the rate I did? No, it was by far much, much better than I ever dreamed.

 

I don't want to see any animated giant cartoon characters in my cruise vacation. So no matter what the cost, I will cruise other lines to avoid them. Be it Celebrity, HAL, Princess, etc.

 

Celebrity is an excellent cruise line and even if it does cost more, I'll gladly pay what it takes to experience the type of cruise that I want. And that means a more upscale, chic, and adult environment without all of the amusement park styled bells and whistles.

 

And absolutely no giant cartoon characters.

 

That seems like a lot of effort to go through in order to avoid something that I rarely saw on the ship that did have them.

[dmwnc1959]

That seems like a lot of effort to go through in order to avoid something that I rarely saw on the ship that did have them.

 

No effort at all. Just find out which ships/lines don't have them, then don't cruise them. That leaves about 75-90 other ships to choose from on several mass market and upscale cruise lines including Celebrity Cruises, Princess Cruises, Holland-America, Cunard, Carnival, some NCL and some RCI ships, MSC, P&O, Oceania Cruises, Crystal, Great American Steamboat, and American Cruise Lines.

 

 

See, no effort at all. ;)

[cello56]

We were on Oasis and Liberty last fall, and rarely if ever saw the Dreamworks characters other then at specific parade times. Did not impact us at all. One thing I think you might forgetting is that not all 100% of adults dislike seeing and participating with these characters! There are a lot of adults who enjoy animated movies and have their own favorite characters - just look at how many childless adults book the character breakfasts! Personally, while I don't dislike the Dreamworks guys, they are not my favorites either. Now if you had Disney characters and Goofy was there, oh my goodness, my husband would be at the front of the line!! He loves Goofy! Owns over 65 stuffed Goofy toys, has multiple t-shirts and coffee mugs! Each to their own. :)

[Ocean Boy]

No effort at all. Just find out which ships/lines don't have them, then don't cruise them. That leaves about 75-90 other ships to choose from on several mass market and upscale cruise lines including Celebrity Cruises, Princess Cruises, Holland-America, Cunard, Carnival, some NCL and some RCI ships, MSC, P&O, Oceania Cruises, Crystal, Great American Steamboat, and American Cruise Lines.

 

 

See, no effort at all. ;)

 

Hey, I don't care what ships you cruise on. I'm simply making the point that this has not turned out to be the issue that people thought it would be when it was first announced. I am speaking from experience. Whether my opinion means anything to you or not doesn't matter. Its all good.

[EGG]

I was on Explorer over Thanksgiving and if there were any Dreamworks characters I did not see them.

[dmwnc1959]

Hey, I don't care what ships you cruise on. I'm simply making the point that this has not turned out to be the issue that people thought it would be when it was first announced. I am speaking from experience. Whether my opinion means anything to you or not doesn't matter. Its all good.

 

Exactly. It's all good, and to each his own. Opinions and advice from strangers are taken with a grain of salt, yet also much appreciated.

 

We are all adults and make our vacation decisions based on a set of criteria of what we want to achieve, or not achieve, and what type of environment we want to spend it in.

 

:D

[Cruising89143]

I find it interesting that people who have not cruised on a ship with the Dreamworks feature would even comment on the ships that have them or the experience itself. The Allure was the first ship that had the Dreamworks experience added and there have been very few comments about any issues with this.

[CruisingMachine]

Just interested in what rccl ships do not have dreamworks on board. We

were recently on Freedom and it was awful. It ruined Sailaway and the deck party. Isnt there enough kids areas. Do these ridiculous animated creatures have to interfere with the wonderful sailaway experience and deck party and also alot of times while the band was playing on sea days. I felt like I was on a Disney Cruise. Worst thing was it was mid Jauary and there were only like maybe 80 kids on board yet the whole cruise catered them. It was so weird and definately not a vacation ID ever pay my hard earned money and waste my long awaited vacation on again. So IM hoping Explorer and atleast a few other ships arent going to jump ship and go dreamworks. It was our friends first cruise and they were like um this isnt how you described sailaway or the sea days or dancing under the stars at all. Very disappointing. Im hoping RCCL figures this out becuase we've been loyal to them for so long. But if all the ships are going to be like this we re going to have to go Norwegian unfortunately.

 

Were you STALKING the characters or something?! :D

 

Seriously, you would have to try REALLY HARD to be annoyed by the characters. I've been on both the Oasis and Freedom and hardly saw them. I'm no big fan of those characters, as they do nothing for me, but I'll be darned if I would let me them ruin a minute of my cruise vacation.

[silver03]

We were just on Liberty and only saw the characters when we sought them out. Otherwise, we pretty much forgot that the ship had "The Dreamworks Experience"...

[mariapd719]

Well when I get one long vacation a year that we can all get together for with our crazy schedules and I fly to get there and cant wait for sailaway only to have it completely ruined with ridiculous characters and childrens music. It is an issue for me. It doesnt feel like Im in the Caribbean but feels like Im at Chuck E Cheeses. Im not rich by any means and I look forward to my adult vacations all year.

 

Im not a Celebrity person. Its too hoity toity for me. Im only 35 and Im not looking for the high brow stuff. I dont do formal nights or the dining room at all for that matter. RCCL has always been the best fit for our crew of 10-15 who usually sail together. I dont know why theyre changing things and not for the better. Things were great the way they were.

 

It also seemed to me that Freedom had way less stuff going on at night. People who looked at our cruise pics kept commenting on FB.....where is everyone? I dont know...in theyre rooms cuz they were bored? It was a ghost town. Ive been on the Indy and the Liberty and absolutely loved them both. The night of the deck party we kept waiting for people to come and noone ever did so 10 mins before we just went back to the room. I dont know...maybe cuz it was out of Port Canaveral there were older people. Not sure what was up. Oh and the reggae band ( one of my fave things bout cruising) Never even played till day 6 of the 7 day cruise. I kept telling the new people we went with like the reggae band played everyday and they never did

 

Just hope that Explorer and a couple VOS class ships dont switch over and Ill be happy. If they do we may have to try something else. Maybe an all inclusive.

 

Hondarr - take them on the freedom then cuz they had meet and greets with these characters atleast 4 times a day on the compass

[hondarr9]

 

Hondarr - take them on the freedom then cuz they had meet and greets with these characters atleast 4 times a day on the compass

Yes we did catch a couple of them, but let be known that at least on the Oasis the meet and greets were held in tucked away locations, like in the foyer of the theater while nothing was happening there. They also usually only lasted about 10-15 minutes.

 

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[Lottycruiser]

Voyager of the seas will get Dreamworks from May 2012.

 

Will it get any of the other upgrades , like the outdoor movie screen ?

[bigque]

They don't seem to be around all the time, cause when I look at everyones reviews of Freedom, Oasis & Allure with pictures, I can't even think of the time that I saw pictures of these characters in the review. As a matter of fact they are hardly ever mentioned in the reviews!

[hexonx]

I don't see the issue with characters on cruise ships. Furry and non furry ones. I am personally looking forward to the character breakfast more than my 10 year old is.

 

If kids were an issue on a cruise or characters at that point, I would sail an adult only cruise which I have zero urge to ever do.

[Janet524]

I have to admit that I was more than annoyed when I learned that Dreamworks characters would be cruising with us on Oasis. I thought that if I wanted to be harrassed by cartoon characters I'd take a Disney cruise. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Dreamworks events were unintrusive. They were scheduled events and could be avoided easily. Also, it was kind of fun seeing them participate in the parade in the Royal Promenade.

[12marshall]

A sailaway is what you make of it. There are soooo many different ways to enjoy it from having champagne in your room or balcony, going to the front of the ship and looking out at the port over the water, dancing at the pool, whatever. We have done something a little different each time but for me it's all about the company whether it's family or friends.

 

As far as Dreamworks, it was going full-speed on our 8 day Liberty cruise last year and it was completely unobtrusive and could easily be avoided. Even their breakfasts were scheduled super early. All the major cruise lines are doing this and they see it as value-added. In the case of RCI it was a substantial expense and included major upgrades to their main theater including advanced 3-D technology and digital audio. All-in-all it's an upgrade and frankly it's likely to be temporary as they'll find something else that's "hot" and implement that.

[littlesteelo]

To answer OP's question, the ships that have the Dreamworks stuff are:

 

Oasis, Allure, Freedom and Liberty already have it, and Voyager will be getting it from May 26, 2012.

 

I kind of hope Independence doesn't get it. I think Disney should be the only line with characters, because face it, who could care less about the characters from Madagascar? It's hardly as iconic as the Disney ones, and seems like RCI really are just jumping on the bandwagon.

[Loose Seal]

Another voice for the "you can avoid it" crowd here. I have a phobia of people with their faces covered, so I was upset to find out that my boyfriend had booked a cruise on a ship with these characters. We were able to avoid them most of the time and when we did have to walk by one, he held my hand, stood between me and the character, and hurried me by before I had a chance to panic. Luckily, the characters were not the type to chase down the people who were avoiding them (I'm looking at you, Richmond Kickers mascot that follows me around all the time!).

 

It was so easy to control that I agreed to let him book a cruise on Oasis for May. Hopefully the characters will be just as easy to avoid!

[disneyfan68]

Thanks soooo much. So it WONT be going to Voyager Class then at all, ever??? Thats great.

Lotty, Well you know how usually at sailaway you dance with the crew and they play fun music. They played the likes of the Hokey Pokey and had the hippo up there and the skunk thing. You werent able to dance not that you would want to anyways to the music they were playing. But I love sailaway and dancing on the pool deck. Then they have that sweet kids pool zone on the freedom class which i love cuz it keeps the kids over there. But not on the dreamworks ships. They were playing madagascar and Smurfs at the main pool so all the kids were in the main pool watching the movies. Cant blame them. If i were a kid Id be watching the movies too. But just didnt make sense to me

 

Wow you must really dislike kids. Just saying. They aren't a disease. Kind of hard to find a cruise without kids, Dreamworks or not.

[Loucat]

Just interested in what rccl ships do not have dreamworks on board. We

were recently on Freedom and it was awful. It ruined Sailaway and the deck party. Isnt there enough kids areas. Do these ridiculous animated creatures have to interfere with the wonderful sailaway experience and deck party and also alot of times while the band was playing on sea days. I felt like I was on a Disney Cruise. Worst thing was it was mid Jauary and there were only like maybe 80 kids on board yet the whole cruise catered them. It was so weird and definately not a vacation ID ever pay my hard earned money and waste my long awaited vacation on again. So IM hoping Explorer and atleast a few other ships arent going to jump ship and go dreamworks. It was our friends first cruise and they were like um this isnt how you described sailaway or the sea days or dancing under the stars at all. Very disappointing. Im hoping RCCL figures this out becuase we've been loyal to them for so long. But if all the ships are going to be like this we re going to have to go Norwegian unfortunately.[/quote

 

 

Please do not take my response in the wrong way. We are D+ on RCC. On our last RCC cruise, we had the waterworks and Shriek experience too. That is when I knew we needed a change.

From a buisness perspective, RCC seems to have long term plans to capture the attention of young families; creating a market for the future. Loyalty does not equate to corporate profits. I loved our earler RCC cruises but the line has changed IMHO.

I have been on NCL and suggest trying Princess. We are still exploring, but loved our most recent Princess cruise. Good luck!

[Loucat]

A sailaway is what you make of it. There are soooo many different ways to enjoy it from having champagne in your room or balcony, going to the front of the ship and looking out at the port over the water, dancing at the pool, whatever. We have done something a little different each time but for me it's all about the company whether it's family or friends.

 

As far as Dreamworks, it was going full-speed on our 8 day Liberty cruise last year and it was completely unobtrusive and could easily be avoided. Even their breakfasts were scheduled super early. All the major cruise lines are doing this and they see it as value-added. In the case of RCI it was a substantial expense and included major upgrades to their main theater including advanced 3-D technology and digital audio. All-in-all it's an upgrade and frankly it's likely to be temporary as they'll find something else that's "hot" and implement that.

Have to disagree here. Not all of "the major cruise lines" are turning to creatures cruising. We were on HAL in January and Princess this month; not an animal character to be found. They are also lacking on X an Azamara. NO value added for many cruisers.

[Loucat]

To answer OP's question, the ships that have the Dreamworks stuff are:

 

Oasis, Allure, Freedom and Liberty already have it, and Voyager will be getting it from May 26, 2012.

 

I kind of hope Independence doesn't get it. I think Disney should be the only line with characters, because face it, who could care less about the characters from Madagascar? It's hardly as iconic as the Disney ones, and seems like RCI really are just jumping on the bandwagon.

 

Independence does have it. It is the cruise where I knew I needed a change.

[BeachChik]

I also will not go on a cruise that have those creatures on it. As some else posted some of the NCL cruises have Dora etc. and I will not sail on them either. They need to keep them confined in the childrens area.

 

They are. When we were on the freedom we only saw the characters at sailaway which I thought was cute. We never saw them the entire rest of the cruise. You have to know where they are to see them. They aren't just wandering the ship.

 

And I think what.plays on the big screen varies. One morning we saw cars 2, hardly anyone was watching. And in the evenings they played football and baseball.